Sunday, March 11, 2012

1504e 2012/03/11–12

Four planets in eight minutes! I observed Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars between 19:45 and 19:53, using the 8.8mm Meade Ultrawide in the 127mm triplet apo (108x). Mercury was a tiny crescent (9" 19%), Venus a larger slightly gibbous disk (20" 59%), Jupiter a large ovoid (35" 99%), and Mars a tiny disk (14" 100%). Seeing was poor; I'll recheck Mars later when it's higher.

The images in the apo are exquisite: perfectly sharp and with not superfluous colour.

Temperature = 6.0°C

I wasn't able to resist the temptation for another look at Mars, so I went back out with my 5mm Radian eyepiece (190x) at 20:10. Mars had risen a bit and the seeing had steadied, but unfortunately the "boring side" of Mars was towards Earth. The polar cap was quite distinct, and I could see hints of shadings on the disk, but it wasn't very inspiring. The temperature is dropping really fast!

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About Me

Born in Montreal QC in 1941, moved to Toronto ON in 1964 with brief sojourns in Santa Barbara CA and Waterloo ON, moved to Coldwater ON in 2005. Married to Louise Gervais in 1985 with one son, David, currently living in Melbourne Australia. My interests have ranged through photography, astronomy, music, anthropology, herpetology, psychotherapy, computers and model trains. Currently I write a weekly article for Space.com and perform regularly on lute and recorder with the early music ensemble, Cassiopeia.